Royal wedding mentioned every 10 secs online-study

2 Min Read

Irish Guards prepare for an inspection at their barracks in Windsor, southern England April 21, 2011. The Guards will perform ceremonial duties at the wedding of Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton on April 29. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s royal wedding is generating around 9,000 mentions a day online, or one every 10 seconds, according to a study from specialist technology firm Greenlight published on Thursday.

Internationally, those excited by the marriage between Prince William and Kate Middleton on April 29 outweigh the naysayers by six to one, the company’s research shows.

During March and April, there have been 158,000 posts related to the wedding on online media, with nearly 61,000, or 38 percent, coming in the last seven days alone.

YouTube and Facebook (public posts) accounted for the smallest share of the posts, at one and eight percent respectively, while online news sources accounted for 30 percent followed by blog posts (29 percent).

Twitter accounted for 17 percent and forums 16 percent, Greenlight added. Those proportions could change, however, now that the wedding will be available on YouTube via an official royal channel.

Posts about Middleton’s dress (23 percent), the guest list (20 percent) and gifts (18 percent) were the most popular.

Palace officials have said that as well as live streaming of the wedding, there would be a live blog and integrated Twitter feed, underlining how technology is changing the way the royal occasion is viewed around the world compared to past events.

Britain’s press have followed every twist and turn of the royal engagement and wedding preparations with gusto since the wedding was announced in November.

The royal wedding is expected to be one of the year’s most watched events globally, with some estimating viewership of up to two billion people.